City Officials Unveil Cutting Edge Crime Fighting Technology

On Monday, the City of Long Beach unveiled cutting edge public safety technology that moves crime analysis up to a whole new level. The City’s Long Beach Common Operating Picture (LBCOP) innovatively combines existing law enforcement data, with real time camera feeds at parks, beaches, business corridors and other locations to give public safety officials combined background information on specific calls for service in a way that has never been delivered before.

“Long Beach is one of the largest and most diverse cities in California,” says Mayor Bob Foster. “We are committed to public safety, and equally as tech savvy. LBCOP is the City’s most recent triumph in implementing a crime fighting system that will pay public safety dividends into the future.”

Several City departments, including Technology Services, Police, Parks, Recreation and Marine, and Finance were critical to the development of LBCOP. As defined, LBCOP is a real-time crime analysis system that enables the City to provide before and after scene arrival public safety intelligence to officers responding to critical incidents. This system is designed to increase efficiencies and leverage existing technologies against each other to combat crime and promote greater community and officer safety.

The City plans to use this system to provide officers with information about crime scenes and active public safety calls as they occur. LBCOP is capable of giving dispatchers and officials off-scene, an on-scene view of locations where cameras have been installed. Since the inception of LBCOP, 400 cameras have been installed and linked to the system throughout the City.

Business owners and residents are encouraged to participate in LBCOP. Business owners may consult with the City to identify camera systems that are compatible with LBCOP. Privately owned camera systems that are compatible with LBCOP can become synchronized with the system. LBCOP is not a camera monitoring system, but it does provide public safety officials responsible for investigating a crime or dispatching resources to a scene with timely information that matches the reality of scene. LBCOP is also an effective tool that can be used for investigation and prosecution purposes.

“In this time of reduced budgets and decreasing resources, our community/police partnerships continue to be one of the most effective ways of making the community safer,” stated Police Chief Jim McDonnell.

In the few months that LBCOP has been in use, the system has already been successful in aiding Long Beach with public safety at large events, and even with location missing persons. If you or someone you know is interested in partnering with the City of Long Beach for camera locations to feed into LBCOP, please contact Long Beach Police Department’s Information Technology Detail at (562) 570-7324.